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Rick Santorum stretches Senate record

Santorum has stretched or embellished his senatorial record on the campaign trail. | AP Photo

Brookings scholar Ron Haskins, who was intimately involved in the welfare debate, said Santorum was “masterful” in helping pass the law. But he was hardly working alone.

“If you had to pick one Republican, from beginning to end, [former Florida Rep. Clay] Shaw would be the most important. And then, I think I’d put Santorum second,” Haskins said, noting: “There were many Democrats as well, including, most notably, the president.”

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Santorum took an even bigger rhetorical leap in describing one of his accomplishments last month in Arizona, when he defended himself in a presidential debate from criticism that he supported federal family planning funding through Title X.

That’s not a fair criticism, Santorum argued, because while he voted for Title X he also suggested Congress “create something called Title XX” — a program promoting abstinence.

“I said, well, if you’re going to have Title X funding, then we’re going to create something called Title XX, which is going to provide funding for abstinence-based programs,” he said. “I pushed Title XX to — accomplish that goal.”

But Title XX of the Public Health Service Act has been around since 1981. Santorum defended it against proposed cuts in the 1990s and promoted pro-abstinence initiatives. That’s not exactly the same thing as being the architect of the program.

For the Santorum camp, there’s something frustrating about the idea that their candidate should have to hedge his political narrative by constantly giving credit to his Hill collaborators. After all, it’s not like anyone disputes Santorum’s prominence as a strongly conservative legislator.

“Sen. Santorum did push for Title XX funding to promote abstinence education,” said spokesman Gidley. “Rick Santorum was, indeed, one of the principle authors of welfare reform, was the floor manager of the bill in the Senate, has been praised by Sen. Bob Dole, George Will and others for his work to reform an entitlement — get people back to work and reduce welfare rolls.”

Several strategists argued that it’s difficult for senators to determine how much credit to claim because they have to sell themselves to voters, despite being one out of 100.

“It is often challenging for legislators to tout their accomplishments without overstating their role. Somehow, ‘working with my fellow legislators on the committee and coordinating with sponsors and co-sponsors of the companion measure in the other chamber,’ doesn’t have the same ring to it in a 30-second ad or stump speech,” said GOP strategist Jeff Berkowitz, the former Republican National Committee research director. “That said, it is always better to acknowledge that other people had a hand in a success.”

And every presidential candidate leaves a trail of minor fibs in their wake daily, most of them of no particular consequence. Santorum, for his part, claimed before the Illinois primary that he’d won “every state in the Midwest” this year, despite losing Michigan and Ohio to Romney.

It's pretty simple, really ... the GOP has become immune to any concern over lies. They lie, lie and lie some more and, if they don't get their way, just keep repeating lies until the ignorant puppets who idolize them believe the lies. It's pretty tiring, too.

The GOP has no respect for voters. They're just people to buy votes from and to saddle with their rhetoric.

I've heard Senator Santorum say he was a 'co-author' of the Ban legislation. You fail to mention that he was a primary sponsor of the Ban. Maybe every single time he tells it, he doesn't specifically mention others involved. He did give the co-author's name the time I recall.

I've also heard Senator Santorum say that he was the Chair of the House Committee that wrote the Welfare Reform Act. He speaks without notes...He is remarkably accurate, I think.

You have a rather 'mild' basis for your attack, and got a rather 'mild' result. Everyone, even Senate colleagues on the other side of the aisle, agrees that Santorum was a major player in writing and passage of these two milestone laws..

Santorum is a Liar! He Lies daily about Romney's stance Fact Check states they have contacted him with no reply. WHAT DOES SANTORUM HAVE IN COMMON WITH SENATOR OBAMA? Z-E-R-O MANAGEMENT OR EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE! Stop sending Big Spending legislators who created this mess to the oval office to fix it! This guy is so thinned skin he's just like Obama blame Romney because he can't fundraise as good as Romney can. Hello Rick, it's going to take organization and $ to beat Obama!! Please go home to PA and run for Governor and get some experience and grow some chest hair!

I'm not surprised at all his embellishments. This guy is a freaking liar and will lie about anything to make himself look good and fool the voters! Didnt he also lie about the reason why he supported Arlen Specter was because Arlen promised him that he will be backing the Bush SCOTUS nominees. Arlen denied it and said there was no such agreement and now he is lying about the other Senator. Can this guy go any lower? He is totally power hungry and unfit to be president!

Try to focus. This thread is about the lies that Rick Santorum regularly tells on the campaign trail. Don't you think that it's interesting that a man (Santorum) who claims to be so holy has such a problem with telling the truth?

Etch-a-Sketch has competely flopped on virtually every major issue in this election cycle. He's recreated himself time and time again simply depending on what the most recent polling tells him to do. He doesn't just embelish, he flat out lies to appeal to whomever he is addressing.

Mr "I'm going to repeal healthcare with an executive order on day one" consistently surpasses any bending of the truth Santorum does. (Though perhaps Etch-a-Sketch just forgot that there's no such thing as a "law-away" executive in the United States. It certainly didn't stop him from saying it multiple times on his campaign tour.)

This is the guy who is on tape saying he supports a national health care system. He WROTE an op ed stating that Obama should look to Mass as a model for national health care. And yet he denies supporting it now? HE signed the individual mandate law in Mass. But he's "severely against mandates".

You could write 100 pages on all the nonsense and pandering spewing from the robot's mouth"y'all", But Politico choses to headline some of Sanotum's minor campain embelishments.